Lately we’ve had a lot of questions about how AEHI plans to fund a nuclear power plant.  There have been a lot of rumors floating around about the process, so we’d like to use the following opinion piece to clear up any misconceptions. Dan Hamilton, AEHI director of public relations, wrote the following opinion.

As a child, and not unlike other kids, I was often relentless in questioning my parents menial issues, “Why do I need to eat all my food, why can’t I stay up, and why can’t I spend the night on the roof?”

Most parents know what I’m talking about.

Meaningful answers were often provided, but later the answer to all these questions became, “Because I said so.” An irritating response, but now it’s one I use on my own children, because thinking of a real answer takes time to formulate in a way they’ll understand.

I thought a lot about that lately, and as a representative of Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., I think responses to , “How can your company afford to build a nuclear power plant”, have begun sounding like a tired parent saying, “Because I said so.”

The real answer is much more complicated.

Depending on the reactor, the finished project, likely on a 5,000 acre piece of property outside Payette, will cost between $5 billion and $8 billion.

This is an investor-driven operation, at least in the beginning, and paying for it will require a couple different methods, or phases. These are the reasons investors continue supporting AEHI, because they’ve learned there is no downside to investing in a nuclear power plant.
Phase one will require about $100 million to pay for land, water, engineers, lawyers and applications. Last summer AEHI announced an agreement with an investment group to fund $70 million worth of the project and now we have several large international investors also interested.

Phase two takes place after AEHI receives local and federal approval; once approved, the property will increase in value to about $1.5 billion. The land then becomes an asset used to borrow $5 billion to $8 billion for construction. No loan payments are expected until the plant is operational, and once running at full capacity, it will create about $3 billion annually in reliable profits for 60 years.

These projections create a very attractive loan for most lenders.
Making this even more attractive, and much less risky, is a federal loan guarantee, which insures loan repayment up to 80 percent its original value. You can read more about this program on the Nuclear Energy Institute’s website: http://tinyurl.com/financingnuclearpower. This is also a program many senators are trying to expand.

In short, after phase one, AEHI will have a $1.5 billion asset and a nearly $10 billion asset after phase two — in either case, a very profitable proposition.

It’s also profitable for state and local economies. Following local approval, Phase one will create hundreds of jobs and contribute millions. After federal approval, Phase two will create billions of dollars in gross domestic product every year and thousands of jobs through construction and operation. Then there are local businesses needed to support the people working at the plant.

When finished, about 500 people will be needed to operate the plant, with pay averaging about $80,000 a year.

Coming from someone who studied these issues in great detail as a reporter, who quickly became a proponent, and now as an employee of AEHI, I have learned this project can be accomplished and has the potential to become hugely successful.

I hope you will take the time to study the matter for yourself. You will likely come to the same conclusion. This plant is crucial to providing Idaho with the revenue, the jobs, and the essential base load power the state needs for years to come.